The AGO Collects Alex Colville’s Iconic Canadian Paintings

AUGUST 23 TO JANUARY 4 After the output of the Group of Seven, Tom Thomson and Emily Carr, the works of Alex Colville are arguably Canada’s most recognizable. But where The Group depicted the country’s wild expanses, the late Nova Scotia-based painter captured figures and objects in scenes that, despite their seeming ordinariness, are characterized by an atmosphere of latent unease. The Art Gallery of Ontario is currently displaying more than 100 of Colville’s distinctive pieces. Composed with a draughtsman’s deft eye for detail and proportion and a storyteller’s sense of tension, the archetypal images are accompanied by thematically associated works by the likes of Wes Anderson, Alice Munro, Stanley Kubrick and Sarah Polley—as well as contributions from writer Ann-Marie MacDonald, electronic music Tim Hecker, cartoonist David Collier and others, created specifically for the exhibition—that make plain Colville’s significant impact on contemporary culture. —Craig Moy

In addition to contemporary responses to Colville's work, the exhibition features several thematic pairings from cultural icons whose own work has shades of Colville's. The artist's <em>Elm Tree at Horton Landing</em>, for example, is paired with a poem by Alice Munro. Colville's painting was also featured on the cover of Munro's 1986 story collection, <em>The Progress of Love</em>.

The National Gallery of Canada contributed a number of pieces to the exhibition. (The show will travel to the NGC following its AGO run.) Here, NGC director Marc Mayer talks about "Life, Love, and Loss" in relation to Colville's work.